the hometown 9 started off poorly this week: 1-3 against the a's. here's the thing- cliff lee (the m's #2 pitcher) is on the DL and didn't go. his being in the rotation would have bumped ian snell to the 3rd game. it'd be safe to assume that lee would've won game 2. snell would've then faced the a's #3 starter (who the m's scored 5 off of), and snell only allowed 1 run in his start. having lee out more than likely swung this series from a 3-1 record on the road against a division rival to a 1-3 start, as it wound up.
on to the a's fans' seemingly favorite topic/sore spot: milton bradley. generally speaking, a's fans are either really forgetful or just want to dislike this guy. bradley was a solid player for the a's (.980 fielding pct, good BA, OBP, etc-- CLUTCH playoff player) and they booed and killed this guy online. for some reason, his defensive mistake at the end of the 3rd game drove people to blame him for the m's loss. thing is, he hit a 2 run HR in that game so the m's wouldn't have even played defense in the bottom of the 9th if he wasn't on our team. see, fans have some weird switch and they flip it and stop thinking sensibly about stuff like this. ichiro fields 1.000%, hits singles, refuses to take advantage of his speed by stealing bases, and doesn't account for as many runs as someone like bradley, yet he's given a pass because he's vanilla boring.
i have a sense that what torii hunter said may have been more accurate than people gave him credit for. it seems that baseball (owners, GMs, managers and fans) have some racist tendencies they play out toward black players. his statements had to do with signing dominican players so they would "appear to have black players" but do so on the cheap. it actually seems to be a valid argument. he also puts his money where his mouth is. i've heard him passionately speak about the need to develop the next generation of baseball talent in the United States and his comments about that development was inclusive of both black and white players (see link above).
that's just one channel though. i also see someone like milton bradley and look around baseball for other guys like him. are there any? who? why not? does it seem odd to anyone else that baseball is the only of the 3 major sports that does not have outspoken black athletes? it's a regular thing in basketball and football... so what gives? plus, it isn't like this guy doesn't produce. he has been a solid player everywhere he's gone. he put the a's on his back in the 2006 ALCS and they designated him for assignment in '07. huh?! how's that work? so talent isn't the bottom line? i can't say i'm totally convinced that baseball is a racist organization but i'm definitely not convinced it's *not*. and that's a shame.
ah well, it's late and i'm railing on. time to hit the hay:)
